The LA Kings were unable to build on their roadtrip as they fell by a 4-2 final on Wednesday evening against the Seattle Kraken.

On the game’s first power play, the Kings opened the scoring through forward Andrei Kuzmenko. Stationed in the left-hand circle, Kuzmenko took a feed from defenseman Brandt Clarke and worked his way towards the net. He picked his spot, five hole, and beat Kraken netminder Joey Daccord clean with a shot for his 12th goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead.

Seattle pushed back, however, with two goals in 58 seconds to flip the script with a 2-1 advantage.

First, Kraken forward Ryan Winterton picked off a D-to-D pass behind the goal line and fed forward Shane Wright in front of the net, where he finished on the backhand for his tenth goal of the season to tie the game at one. Then, less than a minute later, Seattle pulled ahead with a low-to-high play, as forward Chandler Stephenson fed defenseman Adam Larsson crashing in from the right point, where he buried from the slot for a 2-1 lead.

The visitors tacked on a third goal later in the opening period to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. Skating on the man advantage, Seattle attacked off the rush, as defenseman Vince Dunn cut inside at the offensive blue line and drove towards the net. Dunn worked his way into the right-hand circle and beat Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper with a low, backhanded shot to put the Kraken up by a pair.

The Kings capitalized on another power play midway through the second period to pull back within a goal. Fiala nearly lost an edge but was able to maintain possession, feeding forward Adrian Kempe below the goal line. Kempe quickly worked the puck to Kuzmenko in the slot, where he buried his shot first time for his second goal of the evening, pushing Los Angeles back to a goal down at 3-2.

The visitors added a fourth goal, their second of the game on the power play, to restore the two-goal advantage. Activating out of the corner, forward Frederick Gaudreau found Wright through the slot and the Seattle centerman buried at the back post for his second goal of the game to put the Kraken up 4-2. Both Wright and Gaudreau collected their second goals of the game on the play.

Hear from Kuzmenko, Clarke and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s game.

Andrei Kuzmenko

Brandt Clarke
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
Especially at the end of the back-to-back, we wanted to get on them early, forecheck, play our game. They got three in the first and they were taking it to us, so that was unacceptable on our behalf. We did the best we could to come back in the game and try to play down there and make things happen but just couldn’t get it done. It’s frustrating when you get behind like that early.

On what he felt was missing during the first period tonight
Just the effectiveness with……not that guys weren’t bearing down, but it was just kind of unlucky chances in front of the net, I don’t know. We didn’t sustain zone time like we wanted to, we didn’t get as many shots from the point, myself included, especially right off the hop there. It’s frustrating when we come in with the mindset that we want to get to them right away and they kind of flip the script on us. We don’t want that trend to continue.

On acquiring Artemi Panarin and what he knows about him as a player
We’re obviously thrilled. He’s a phenomenal player. You see the highlights, you see what he does with the puck, the patience he has, the shot he has and it seems like he wanted to come here. He wanted to be an LA King. We have a bunch of guys on this team that want to be LA Kings and want to contribute to this organization. To add another guy like that, with that mentality, it’s awesome to hear. We’re looking forward to him getting in here, seems like a great human being. He’s going to help us out a lot offensively, so it’s going to be great. We’re looking forward to having him.

Jim Hiller
On the six minutes in the first period that allowed three goals and the game as a whole
That was not a good game for us. I mean, second period, maybe we were good in spurts, but I didn’t think we had much all night, legs, execution was few and far between. It was six minutes where they scored, but we just weren’t sharp.

On his impressions of Darcy Kuemper’s game tonight
I think, like everybody else, we just weren’t sharp. Too many penalties. We just did a lot of things that were, I would say, uncharacteristic. Turning the puck over quite a bit, defensively on breakouts and then in the offensive zone, we just couldn’t get a good game going together. Despite that, we probably had a chance to tie it and then the fourth goal kills us, killed any chance of that.

On if he buys into the narrative of a first game after a long trip
I don’t like that excuse. I mean, we’ve come back from roadtrips before. I don’t know, I have to see our record, I start fresh every time. That just was not a good game and we’ve got to be better than that, road trip or not.

On the performance of the power play tonight
Yeah, I mean, two nice goals. We still needed one more, we did have another opportunity. I thought we were pretty good. The second goal, of course, is a really nice play, similar goal to the goal we scored in Detroit. That gave us life, but there wasn’t enough.

On acquiring Artemi Panarin today and what he brings to the team
One of the premier wingers in the league, has been for so many years, what a track record. He’s a one-shot shooter. He can find the back of the net, he doesn’t need a lot of looks. On top of that, he can find people, he’s a playmaker, so whoever ends up getting to play with him most consistently, I think it’ll take a little time, he does play a little bit of a different style of game, might take somebody a little time to adjust, but he’s going to be somebody that we’re going to lean on a lot. We check, we do all the right things that way. We just need somebody to help us find the back of the net a little more often.

Notes –
– Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (2-0=2) celebrated his 30th birthday today by scoring his 12th and 13th goals of the season, scoring both of them on the power play. The winger becomes the 27th different skater in franchise history to score a goal on their birthday, and the first to do so since Alex Laferriere on Oct. 28, 2023 versus Vegas.
– With his second strike of the night, Kuzmenko joins Luc Robitaille (2-2=4 on Feb. 7, 1992 vs. BOS), Dave Taylor (2-2=4 on Dec. 4, 1979 at ATL), Wayne Gretzky (3-2=5 on Jan. 26, 1991 vs. VAN) and Butch Goring (3-0=3 on Oct. 22, 1975 at CHI), as the only skaters in franchise history to record a multi-goal effort on his birthday.
– The pair of power play goals marked Kuzmenko’s team-leading seventh and eighth such markers of the season. The native of Yakutsk, Russia, now has recorded 13 total points (8-5=13) on the man-advantage this season, breaking a tie with Corey Perry (4-7=11) for sole possession of the second-most power play points on the team this season, trailing only Kevin Fiala (4-13=17).
– Forward Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) posted his seventh multi-point effort of the campaign with his 21st and 22nd assists of the season. With the helpers, Fiala (4-17=22) leapfrogs Edmonton’s Zach Hyman (11-10=21) for fourth-most points recorded against the Kraken since their inaugural season in 2021-22.
– Fiala’s 39th and 40th points (18-22=40) of the campaign were both minted on the man-advantage in tonight’s divisional matchup. This marks his second contest of the season with multiple power play points (PPP), following his two-point afternoon (1-1=2) against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 1, 2026. The 29-year-old’s 10 such efforts since joining the Kings ahead of the 2022-23 season are the most
by any team skater over that span.
– Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) recorded his 26th assist of the season, extending his point streak to an eighth game, (5-5=10), dating back to Jan. 17 at Anaheim. Kempe’s current run is the second point streak of eighth or more games in his career. The 29-year-old skates into tomorrow’s visit to Vegas one game shy of tying the career best nine-game point streak (6-7=13) that he set from Oct. 24 – Nov. 11, 2023.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) collected his 21st assist and 27th point (6-21=27) of the season, extending his lead amongst Kings blueliners in both categories. Clarke (1-7=8) ties Quinton Byfield (3-5=8) for the fifth most power play points among all Kings skaters through the first 55 games of the 2025-26 season.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty played his 1,254th career game tonight, tying him with Kevin Lowe (1,254 GP) for the 30th-most games played by a defenseman in NHL history. Among active blueliners, only Brent Burns (1,551 GP) has played more regular season NHL contests than Doughty has.

The Kings are set to travel to Las Vegas tonight and will play their final game before the Olympic break tomorrow night against the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.